I said sorry right! God
by afiqah
Summary: Guilty, guilty. He didn't mean to, but Toushiro has landed Karin in the hospital. She can't talk at all for the time being which makes it convenient to make up. An unwelcome move Karin thinks. AU hitsurin.
1. Chapter 1

Helluu. A little introduction for I find it too tedious to put it in the story. Toushirou and Karin are in the same class in the same middle school and are now in the holiday period before starting junior college. Both have been accepted into the same junior college but they don't know it. Toushirou has, somewhere in the mess and heat or enmity, fallen for Karin and.. yeah. You get it. I 'm too lazy to figure out the whole high school middle school business (eventhough my sis would explain it to me again for the third time with much fervour if I asked) so i'm using an education system I'm more familiar with- my own. Sorry if it confuses some. Heh.

Background info- you join junior college (JC for short) at 17 and it's for 2 years before you move on to university.

***

She slammed me with enough intended force to knock me out of her front door. Stronger than I expected her to be, the impact of her hand against my arm was evenly distributed. Faster than I would have liked, I was on my back on the concrete path leading to her door and trying not to cry.

NAW!!! Toushirou Hitsugaya?! Me no cry. Especially not with my name tag on my shirt where everyone could see it.

"DON'T YOU WALK YOUR ASS UP HERE LIKE IT'S YOUR HOUSE 'CAUSE IT'S MINE!!" shouted Karin, her voice shot with venom and outrage in equal parts. This was non-sensical.

"You've no right to tell my ass to do your bidding!" I yelled back, not bothering to sit up and assume a more dignified position to face the bull-angry Karin.

"STRAY BITCHES STAY ON THE STREET. YOU NEED TO BE THIS EVOLVED," she raised her horizontal palm to eye-level, "TO GET IN SO SCRAM!"

A gunshot rang through the air. No my apologies, that was the door slamming. I exhaled. Sighing in the prospect of defeat was not fitting for a Hitsugaya. So I exhaled instead.

I still needed to get in the house though as some dudes would be deeply un-cheered if I didn't.

***

That. Was wrong. Five days in my sad week was indeed not enough for him. My weekend just _had_ to be intruded upon as well.

"Argh! Why did he come? What did he want?! HOW DID HE KNOW THAT I LIVE HERE?!!!"

Wow I hate him. Hitsugaya and I have had a long and illustrious history of spite. A smart one was he. I wouldn't say a prodigy, but he was smart, I'd give him that. Everytime we were given an assignment or project, he would steal my idea, make it better, use it for his own. Raimei would say that he didn't do it on purpose and it was just fateful coincidence and that I should let it go and if it really bothers me, see a teacher. That last part bugs. She knew I would never do it.

If I was Yuzu, my idea of a go at comfort would be: "He'd be hard-pressed to find a girlfriend."

Dad had left the house to me during his business getaway thing and I can't even bask in the freedom of it all.

Why, why, why, why, why, _why_, _why_, WHY, WHY?!

***

I zippped round the back, door was unlocked (cool. And stupid. Security systems fail to work if the door is unlocked.), slunk past the stairs to Karin's room from which Avenged Sevenfold music was blasting, dropped the goods Captain Ichigo had instructed to buy in the kitchen, turned arou- hnm? Potato salad? I looked into the contents of the bowl. Whole load of brown mush. I sniffed. Aunt Matsumoto would have been offended to be served this. Throwing a furtive glance in the direction of the stairs, I proceeded to better the dish. Cooking and good food shaped the familial pride of the Hitsugaya. I would be committing a great dishonour if I did nothing. Twenty arduous adrenaline-charged minutes later, I smirked regally at the potato salad which I, The Great Toushirou, had turned into something Aunt Matsumoto would eat. God, I'm awesome. All without Karin knowi- f*** here she comes! My blood thundered in my ears. It was too late to get to the back door, the front door was Karin-slammed shut and the automated locking system would have automatically locked it- so what to do?!

***

Karin languidly flipped on the lights to the kitchen. Groceries. Funny. Ichigo. Yeah, he must have come in to put 'em there. Karin frowned. She was mildly hungry. Dark eyes fell upon a bowl of food. Steam was wafting from it and that was good. Enough.

Meanwhile, Toushirou was shooting down the streets, the sound of his sport shoe-ed feet against the monotonous grey of pavement mirroring his erratic heartbeat. In two minutes, he had crossed the safe threshold into his apartment, locked his door and let gravity pull him onto the sofa, his back facing the ceiling.

Toushirou exhaled again into the cushions. Being the errand boy of Captain Ichigo's team was a great deal taxing. The team (errand boys excepted) was getting together at the Kurosaki's house. Somebody had to get the stuff ready beforehand and put it in the house for the convenience of the soccer team- and the inconvenience of Hitsugaya. Toushirou rolled onto his back and kneaded his legs from the lactic acid. Had he not snuck into the Kurosaki household, Karin would never allow him and his groceries in. Had he not leaped through the window, life would have been lost to him by Karin's doing and he wouldn't have made it through the holidays into the new school year in a new school and finally be recruited into Captain Ichigo's soccer team. The errand boy gig was a heinous initiation thing in accepting Freshman members at Shineiy Gahmy Junior College. His pride had been reduced to a third of its size eversince bearing the role of "errand boy" and he did not really particularly like how desperate he was to enter the team- but he was desperate, and that was all there was.

His eyelids were dragging themselves over his eyes but he couldn't sleep yet. He would be sleeping on the couch then, which Aunt Matsumoto would flay him for, and, more importantly, he hadn't shampooed and conditioned his hair yet and there was no way he would break his daily ritual.

Toushirou mumbled out his train of thought snaking through his mind. "Ritual.. Kurosaki.. Orange.. Potato salad.. prawns..-!"

He jolted into seating position, running his hand through his crown of hair, a shocking white, his brow dark in thought. He had mixed in sliced prawns into the potato salad.

Karin was deathly allergic to prawns.

Well....shoot.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello again! What a pleasant and great surprise to have all these story alerts for this throw-together story! Thank you so much!!! I've had this dream of writing a fan fiction for a long time (a very lame dream, yes, I know) and well, I'm glad it's not lame. The fic I mean. Thank-you-thank-you again!

For Those Who Don't Know: You complete four years of secondary school before you choose either JC or a 3-year course in polytechnic. JC is a more direct route to university and you join polytechnic if you already know what you want to be in life for they offer very job-sector -specific courses and after poly, you go out and work, and since you already have proper and specific training for it, your job will offer you a higher salary than JC-university students with no experience. Anyway, to the secondary school final year students, some polytechnics offer Advanced Elective Modules from a few of their many courses and the objective is to give students a head-start in the course and give them a taste of poly life so that they join that poly (cos there are a good many to choose from). AEM is serious business, with interviews, high-level projects, guiding professors from where the course the AEM is from and a super-hard test at the end of it all. I wouldn't know but my friend joined a chemistry AEM so yeah.

Hahax! I dono if I'm loading you up with too much information but if this is useful in helping you see the bigger picture then yeah. Sorry!

Hope that didnt put you off the story! *smiles*

* * *

"WHAT?!! She's in the _hospital_?! What did you do?! Oh my _God_. This is _horrible_. How could you not have known that she was allergic to prawns?! I like, repeated it like, a million times!! _UGH_! And now I have to fix it?!" A exasperated female voice resounded off the walls of an unnamed room in Karakura.

"Sorry. But maybe this will soften Karin's steel-hard heart," a male voice chirped. There was something in the quality of his voice that gave you the impression that he was smiling.

"You are so _optimistic_. What is wrong with you. Don't tell Hitsugaya anymore recipes please," the female voice replied, her mood worn and very much frayed.

"My move is done. It cannot be changed. Your turn." The matter-of-fact male voice felt like a solid entity diffusing through the air, brushing past the cheeks of the female like dust. His body exploded with a light that brought to mind lighted chrome and her form simultaneously shuddered like the light was powering into the pores of her body.

"This is more stressful than what you would think the business of love would be," the female said as the light receded.

"Don't be distressed. It gets easier as you get used to it!" the male chirped again.

"O-kay," the female singsonged, clear disbelief laced in every fluctuation of tone.

* * *

Toushiro's facial muscles were taut, with his eyebrows pulled high above his eyes, eyelids almost negligible in comparison to the expanse of sea-green irises which sat immovable and opulent in his eyes. His mouth was thin over his pale face, as it usually was in events of confounding confusion.

"I don't think that I inquired for this AEM," he started, his voice a disagreeable monotone.

"You sent in your resume for it good sir and we would like to congratulate you for your success in being accepted into this programme. You are Hitsugaya Toushiro correct?" a friendly-anchorwoman -sounding person said, ignoring Toushiro's prior denial.

"Yes," he stuttered, unsure, "but really I don't think-"

"Then this is not the wrong number. Please arrive at Desmond's Car Insurance HQ at 9am tomorrow for your first day of your Advanced Elective Module," the speaker joyfully informed.

"This is a big mistake," Toushiro replied, forcefully this time. "I didn't register for this AEM-"

"Please arrive at Desmond's Car Insurance HQ at 9am tomorrow for your first day of your Advanced Elective Module or a letter of complaint will be promptly sent to your school and a charge of fifty dollars will be issued to you for the waste of our resources. I bid you good day."

Hang-up tone.

Aah! The rest of the holidays were lost! Let loose into the wind! He would have to do whatever AEM they would have him do for the rest of the break. And he didn't even know what AEM it was! He figured that his secondary school had sent the registration form and paid for entry, what with his topping the year at Visual Art, Computer Studies, Geography and Chemistry again. It was an honour but..

Toushiro set the phone down. He felt like an ungrateful child. His day was getting from bad to potato. Yes, potato, for potatoes were hard, unyielding and did not complement ice cream. Today was his last day on the job as lowly errand boy. His spot on the team at Shineiy Gahmy JC soccer team was confirmed and he had the rest of the holidays to revel in. At around 3.47am, he received a call (jubilantly welcomed) by a harried Captain Ichigo saying that today's events were cancelled because his sister lost her voice due to an allergic reaction. Guilt seized his lungs at that one. He ran his fingers through his hair. In all the years that they had shared that sacred hate relationship, as unforgiving and as dangerous as the tumultous sea, he had never expected to stop hating Karin. Mayhap it was her wit, her energy or her completely unremarkable appearance. Yes, Toushiro had always favoured the unremarkable. But that wasn't it. You couldn't like someone based on a single reason. A convoluted heap of reasons made up the foundations of his attraction. He exhaled and rubbed his hand over and over his face. The attraction would just stop there for the probability of Karin feeling the same was just one big potato.

* * *

Toushiro got out of the bus and meandered towards Desmond's Car Insurance HQ. It was still 7am but here he was. Mist had fallen heavily in Karakura last night and it had chased away sleep's mist, the welcoming mist that blurred the contours of worry till worry itself could be completely ignored. Yes, sleep's mist did not arrive last night. He might as well be early for the AEM. He could just sleep when he got back. As every pace brought him closer to the despised destination though, Toushiro got more and more transfixed by the building sitting next to the HQ establishment. The Karakura University Hospital. It was Karin's hospital, the one she was staying in. Guilt hit his chest like a hard wooden block aimed for his heart. He would fell cruelly guilty even if it wasn't Karin. He had just robbed someone of their last holiday before being thrown into the hectic days of further tertiary education for goodnesss sake.

Marching right up into the sleepy hospital, Toushiro slammed his palms face-down on the counter and yelled to a bleary-eyed receptionist, "Can I have a registration form for hospital volounteer?"

An hour later, Toushiro had located Karin's ward, shared with seven others, got a place in food duty (he liked food) and was pushing a shiny metal multi-tiered food trolley through the level with Karin's ward in it. He was to send breakfast to every patient on this level and he would be done for the morning before coming back at 7 for dinner duty. As the serving was done for the first few wards (Karin's was the last), Toushiro could hardly stand giving the patients bad food, or at least, food he would not have eaten, but very bad experience, the very same experience which had moved him to become a hospital volounteer, had taught him that doing people favours by bettering their food was not ideal.

"Still..," he mumbled to himself, running his fingers through his hair like crazy now as he stood outside Karin's ward. He touched the plate of the food of one of the wards patients. Ice cold.

"Hm!" he said triumphantly. "Ain't no point doing this volounteer favour if I'm not doing her a favour by givin' her cold food! The least I could do..," He said, while turning the food tray around, away from the ward and towards the kitchen, "is to heat it up."

Nine minutes later, it was 8.50am, ten minutes away from the AEM meeting and probably past the time Karin would be awake, with Toushiro negotiating the bend in the hallway of the hospital with a well-oiled food trolley no less before zooming down the hallway towards Karin's ward. If he had just microwaved Karin's food, questions might be raised if the rest of the seven in the ward realized so he had to microwave all eight plates of food and there were only two microwave ovens so it took eight minutes to complete the task. He just hoped Karin wasn't awake or doing this job in the months ahead would become exceedingly awkward. Just because Karin lost her ability of speech (And yelling. And cursing aloud.) would not make her any less opposed to his job.

* * *

Karin heard the door of the ward click open. While laying on her bed, she raised her legs till it was perpendicular to her body and let them fall again, the motion lending her momentum to sit up bolt-right.

Breakfast was already on her table.

Funny. It was warm this time.

* * *

Toushiro had managed to lay the breakfast out while Karin was still asleep, reach the HQ, buy coffee for the rest of the AEM students like him, the professor-in-charge and the public relations officer who came to greet them and shake hands with everyone before 9am.

"God I'm awesome."


	3. Chapter 3

Hello. I'm having this new euphoric idea for a new fan fiction so I'm just gonna wrap this up as quickly as I can (strikeout) since it's not so popular anyway (/strikeout). Hee. But I don't think that quality will be compromised though. I'm just like that. I hate doing bad work, even if I want to (it's so taxing. God, I'm lame.) So heh. Hope you like this!

* * *

Hitsugaya's AEM was from the Integrated Events and Project Management course at Sir Byakuya Polytechnic. And it was heavy. Who in heaven's name knew that an insurance company demanded so much- for apparently, Desmond's Car Insurance was not just car insurance but an insurance company in general. The name was in memory of the roots of the company which started out as, startlingly, a car insurance company. Toushiro was just let off at 4pm before which an entire six hours was utilized in detailing the next corporate head meet and year-end celebrations for all employees. In the three hours after the AEM meeting, he had dragged his body back home, washed, ate and changed (in no particular order) and made the uninteresting ride from home to hospital for the seven 'o' clock shift.

* * *

"Brilliant! You're here," greeted the adrenaline-spiked nurse-in-charge for the volunteers. It was obviously busy. Maybe they were short-staffed.

"We're completely short-staffed. We got medicine, we got TV but we never have enough nurses," she bellowed, causing a handful of passing patients and their visitors to turn their heads. She waved a hand in their general direction, like she was batting a fly.

"If I can assist-," I mumbled.

"Of course you can dear boy! That's why you're here isn't it? That's why you signed up!"

"..." I was still drained.

"Sorry to say boy but you're off dinner duty today. And to tell you the truth, the whole time you're here. Priorities get priority, so for today at least," she scanned her clipboard at this, "you get to clean the windows."

I don't know how I could have forgotten that dinner duty meant going to Karin's ward when she would so obviously be awake. For getting off dinner duty I was glad. What I was not glad for was cleaning the windows, considering it was the lobby. Some of the walls were entirely built from windows! A niggling voice in my head told me that Karin had to stay here all the time while I would be able to return home eventually. And just two hours in the evening here would at least help ward off any guilt I might feel later and that was welcome.

* * *

I crossed my hands over my chest as I haunted the hallways of Karakura University Hospital. I was admitted for eating prawns, which had triggered a spectacular allergic reaction which could close up my windpipe anytime and had given me a swollen tongue in exchange for my voice.

Blessings, blessings. My eyebrows gravitated towards each other. Frustration was as consistent as the beating of my heart that it must have teased and coiled and merged with my being by this time. The school activities I had to plan for and attend were a bitch and all this remaining holiday time was supposed to be for me! Not in the hospital! Sure, Raimei came to visit everyday, which I appreciated very much, but.. Ah!

I felt like an ungrateful child.

I didn't get cheered by this. Pushing the glass door into the lobby, I plodded towards the hoard of magazines for waiting patients. Maybe there was something decent to- WHAT THE HECK! I ducked behind a thin and tall potted plant and stared through the spaces between the sparse leaves. It was Hitsugaya! And he was wiping windows, cleaning substance in one hand and dust-blackened cloth in the other, clad in a huge turquoise jacket-shirt thing with luminous stripes over whatever he was wearing. The jacket-shirt had the words 'KUH Staff' stamped on the back. Awesome! I slid open my hand phone, smirking like a silly twit, and snapped a photo. Oo yeah. Sure, we wouldn't be in the same school anymore so this black mail would be for naught but I do so love memento-s. Evil was justified when it was against Hitsugaya.

Then he whirled around.

F$%.

In two strides, he was in front of me. Man, I had to quicken my reflexes.

"What are you doing?" he growled. Voice dangerous and low. I know he would have shouted if this wasn't a hospital.. and if he wasn't it's staff! HA! I almost laughed at that. Then it hit me that I couldn't retort. I couldn't talk! SHOOT!! After my allergy attack, I took to texting on my hand phone and showing what I had text-ed to a person to carry a conversation without speech on my part. If I did that right now, Hitsugaya would just laugh and totally ignore me. Now how was I supposed to give him a piece of my mind?! So I did the only thing I could think off.

Shrugging coolly and still smirking, I brushed imaginary dust off his shoulder and turned on my heel. I felt my hand phone getting wrenched out of my grip. I spun back to him and tried to claw it from his hands as he frantically searched for the camera album in my phone to delete his stupid picture. We were creating a great commotion.

"_Cool it_ you hag!" he hissed, eyes not moving from the screen.

The struggle continued with none of us achieving our objectives. No way I was going to let him delete the only bit of fun I've had so far in this god-forsaken establishment, and probably the only bit of fun I could look back on and smile at for the rest of the holidays! Then-

Amazingly, Hitsugaya dropped the hand phone. And when we dove to snatch it up, his knee accidentally-

_Cracke!_

-landed on it.

OH MY GOD! My phone. My alternative voice. Anger was crackling and spitting within me and I couldn't take it. Swiftly, I dug my hand into his jeans pocket where I knew he kept _his_ handphone. I was proud I was able to pull it out in the face of a very embarrassed and uncooperative Hitsugaya. Ass. In three seconds I had text-ed what I wanted to say and thrust it into the imbecile's face. Both of us were on our knees, seething and breathing hard.

"Your chances of playing in SGJC soccer team are over loser. I won't keep this quiet with Ichigo. And since you smashed my phone, I'm taking yours," Hitsugaya whispered aloud as he read my text.

He totally didn't read it right! Where was all the scorching hostility?!

He sharply knocked my outstretched hand phone-bearing arm away and got to his feet as I jumped to mine.

I braced my muscles for the act of running hard and fast back to my ward, with his phone still in hand. I was going to win this round. He looked horrible, his facial muscles contracted in every way which signalled fury. I was sure my own face was matching in double measure whatever petty anger he was trying to express. I was glad he wasn't tall and we were the same height- it made it easier to stare him down. He pushed both hands through his hair agitatedly like he was trying to contain something. I couldn't imagine what. Suddenly, he grabbed me by my shoulders from behind and marched me forward, out of the lobby.

* * *

I flinched and though she couldn't see it, the muscles in my arms were visibly strained with the effort of keeping her moving forward and in the direction I intended. Goodness she was strong! I was fuming though and anger was a useful tonic in lending me strength to overpower her. It was _she_ who had intruded upon me, _she_ who had done the scandalous actions of photographing me for who-knows-what reason, and _she_ who had triggered my naturally ireful reaction. And then she _dare_ demand that I give up my hand phone as compensation for her action! _Her fault, her tragedy!_

But as Karin gradually stopped trying to break free, for it was making quite a pathetic scene and Karin hated a pathetic outlook, hateful thoughts diffused through my conscience. I was becoming acutely aware that Karin did not just want my cellphone but needed it. And she needed it because of me. Where a scream fest, or so Yuzu dubs it, was about to happen, as it usually did in situations like these, was only silence. Karin was in no way able to scream, although her incensed emotions were rolling off her skin, and I, well..

I didn't want to scream when she couldn't scream back.

I'm such a nice guy.

I wanted to tear her lungs out though.

As I marched her back to her ward, I told her in a calm voice I found maddeningly difficult to maintain, the conditions that had to be kept while my cell was in her possession.

"Do not delete any text messages and call my home every time you receive a call or a text message," I started, hearing the strain in my voice. Then I remembered that calling my home would be useless if she couldn't talk. Infuriating. "Never mind. Just don't delete any messages or my call list."

We continued this way down the path to her ward, me not relaxing my grip on her shoulders for a heartbeat for I knew what would happen otherwise. I found Karin's lack of brutal opposition an unsettling phenomenon. I felt like forcing her to resist me.

"And finally, I'll come here," we had reached the door to her ward, "every 7PM to check on my phone."

I let my arms drop to my sides and witnessed Karin doing the impossible.

* * *

I stepped into my ward and shut the door with a cold, sharp click. This was so against my morals. I hadn't yelled at Hitsugaya for humiliating me! But,oh, to hell with it. If I text-ed my thoughts in his hand phone and brandished it in his face, he would know for sure that there was something seriously wrong with me. The same move in the lobby before could have passed off as a dramatic manifestation of my indignation, an indignation that had robbed me of words. I hope it had passed off as dramatic.

As I collapsed on my bed, I stared and stared at his- my- hand phone. It was a candy bar phone, white with sleek azure blue buttons. I totally expected something gold-plated. Turning the phone over I saw the gold-plated back.

Oh.

I couldn't believe that he let me have it! Hitsugaya of all people! Left me with it with nothing but trust in me that I wouldn't break his conditions! Whoa. The world is _crazy_. And he was trying to be _diplomatic_? Diplomacy never solved our fights so why start now? Wow I hate him.

I knew my brows were crossed like hell and if Yuzu were here, she would tell me that I would get stress lines on my forehead if I didn't stop. When did I care? I scooped some hospital dinner porridge left on my bedside table into my mouth and swallowed laboriously.

It was cold.

* * *

"Congratulations Miss on getting our Toushiro involved in the restaurant," a male said, his chirpy voice reflecting his beaming face which was thrown into the shadows, hidden.

"Actually I wanted the resume to reach the hospital, not the insurance company! But they were right next door to each other and I mixed it up! Wait a second," the symphonic laughter of a female pierced the silent night as the aforementioned girl realized something amusing. "Why is there an insurance company next to a hospital?"

"So you can heal your ailing health and finances on the same street," the male stated.

"Anyway, it was an accident and Toushiro went to do the volounteer thing of his own accord. What a good boy. And your turn turned out really well too huh?" the female inquired, glad that the turn of events were exceptionally favourable.

He laughed good-naturedly. "That was an accident too. I meant for him to help the nurse on her round in all the wards," he explained.

"Really?! Wow. How did you get that mixed up?" she replied, sounding stunned through her laughing voice.

"Don't know," he chirped simply. "And it's your turn again."

Light blazed again through the windows of the odd, dark room as a magnificent exchange of power took place, as it had two nights before.

"Here goes. Those two will fall," the female declared.

Then, there was only silence.


	4. Chapter 4

Tut tut tut. I was so uninspired these last few days. Or rather, last many days. Hahahaha! Anyway. What am I doing, prattling on like this. Read and review to push me forth with the progress!

* * *

Hitsugaya could feel his cold sweat running down his back. His respiratory rate was jolting up and he held his breath so that _he_ couldn't see. Couldn't see his chest rising and falling as adrenaline pumped so hard through his veins that his blood felt warm with the speed of it. Face set in a fixed expression he hoped the facade was enough to fool _him_. The sound of footsteps glided off his ears. No good. He was still here. Hitsugaya walked faster now. The hospital's morning breakfast trolley rattled with the increased pace of Hitsugaya's steps. A bend was near. He turned the corner and swiftly ducked into the second last ward and slid the door shut as quickly as silently as his human abilities could possibly allow. The footsteps neared, louder and louder they became, resounding in Hitsugaya's ears until he was struck at how the patients could stand to sleep in such dinning, tense-saturated atmosphere.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

Toushiro wondered if this was how it felt like being a girl about to be raped.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

No! What was he doing? Realization stunned him like the sound of a crack whip in the silence. Jumping up from his couched position. He stood up to face to face the closed door of the ward ready to face _him_ when he opened the door.

A shadow passed behind the translucent glass in the door of the hospital ward.

The predator had walked right past.

* * *

Karin knew she would be feeling dizzy with conspiratorial glee right then- if not for the disgust which arrested her attention.

She scrolled down the inbox list of Hitsugaya's handphone. Almost twelve messages were sent in, from this dude she didn't know, this morning. The hand phone's Rihanna message tone woke her up. Ga-ay message tone.

She didn't know the message was a harbinger of what was to come.

Aizen. That was his name. His messages went like,

"_Tried to catch your eye at AEM yesterday. I think you were avoiding me. No problem. I like to chase_."

"_You should stop wearing straight cut jeans. If you aren't willing to wear pants that hug your ass, I will hug it for you_."

AAH!!!! She almost dropped the phone at the sudden shivers that shook her hand. Aizen was a guy! And the guy was GAY! With Hitsugaya!!! Was this Hitsugaya's idea of revenge? It must be! No other reason would present itself to justify his eff-ing _niceness _yesterday! Hitsugaya was gay and he purposely gave her this stupid phone and asked his Aizen to send her things that he knew would freak her out.

Ooo he was good.

But if that was a challenge, she sure as heck would strike back hit for hit. Oh no. He wouldn't win. A smirk weedled its way onto Karin's face.

She perked at the smooth sound of the ward door being slid back, exposing a-

* * *

Aizen could only be described as a divine being. He had a strong jaw but a lean face, similar to what one might associate with perfection. His soft, ivory skin with a hint of a light tan didn't dampen his masculinity. Instead, it only proved to make him even more captivating. His irises were a warm, honey brown, capable of making you melt with his piercing gaze. His black, rectangular-framed spectacles added a touch of sophistication. His hair, a beautiful, rich chocolate colour cascaded down his neck and it swayed with every movement like an exotic dance. Its wavy composition came to an end at the nape of his neck; a few strands straying across his face.

Smexy.

Aizen had a strong built and towered at an impressive height of 6"2 feet. His weight consisted mostly of muscles, which rippled at every movement. He was toned and despite his muscular exterior, he had the grace and swiftness of a jaguar – beautiful, but deadly. The last thing that completed his whole look would be his outfit.

Aizen was clad in a casual ensemble, consisting mostly of whites. His athlete-like legs were covered by white, tailored jeans that made it look as if Aizen had melted into them. A black leather belt was wrapped almost intimately around his waist despite the fact that it was unnecessary as the pair of jeans were already a perfect fit. His white dress shirt had its first three buttons opened – the buttons, a deep raven. A nice show of a prominent collar bone could be seen, teasing any unwary onlookers. The short sleeves of the dress shirt were rimmed with charcoal black. A silver Rolex clung to his wrist and it shone brightly whenever light would grace its reflective surface. His feet were snugly fitted into a pair of Converses, white, naturally. On its canvas surface, there were black inscriptions on it reading 'Arrancar'. It was laced with black and its soles were the same shade of ebony.

And as Toushiro gazed upon the heavenly being that had floated to stand in the entrance of the hospital room, he couldn't help but let a stray thought meander itself into his mind.

_Rawr._

Oh wait. It wasn't Toushiro, it was some random patient in Karin's ward. Moving on.

* * *

Hitsugaya gripped the door of the second last ward as he stared, in horrified stupor at what Aizen was doing.

Sousuke had been doing everything short of courting Hitsugaya since yesterday and in that short interval of time Toushiro had been driven to the pinnacle of discomfort- and if he were driven any further, he would surely fall of the edge and plummet. Aizen had even taken to following him. Even into his hospital shift.

"Good morning," crooned Aizen.

Toushiro prayed that it wasn't Karin he was talking to, that she was asleep and oblivious.

"My. Sorry if I am mistaken, but is that Toushiro's phone?" he asked, cocking his head slightly to his right, feigning innocent curiousity. He stepped into the last ward and Toushiro lost sight of him from his position peering from the doorway of the second last ward.

Curses.

"I see." Toushiro could imagine with startling vividness the laughing smile on Aizen's face. Perhaps it was because he had been on the receiving end of those smiles for 10.85 hours yesterday.

"Well, since Toushiro isn't here," Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes at the tender manner his name was being said, "mind if I take a seat?"

Hitsugaya flew into Karin's ward, his tight frown a weight on his face.

"AIZEN!"

"Toushiro! You came! I knew I could lure you out if I talked to your girlfriend."

"WHAT?!" Toushiro grabbed the back of Aizen's collar just as Aizen dodged the claw of the swipe of Karin's hand at his face.

"Now who else would keep your hand phone in loving care and use it with such disregard for the owner's privacy? Like she knows you."

"Aizen, as the staff of this hospital, I'm going to have to asked you to leave!" Toushiro bellowed. Both Toushiro and Karin were breathing hard, never making eye contact but eyes trained on the serene complexion of Aizen.

"But dear, dear Toushiro! I merely came in search of you," Aizen said slowly, in a breathy way which made Karin's muscles squirm at disgust at the gayness of it all.

"IM NOT GAY SOUSUKE! So _leave_."

Everyone in the ward was awake and alert by this time.

Aizen laughed softly. A musical laugh which caused the heart rate of all to spike from a fear they did not expect to feel. "Okay then. I do request that you read the hospital daily paper. The style of composition is really.. _soulful_."

And he left.

* * *

"Perfect, Aizen!" a female voice sounded to his right as he walked out Karakura University Hospital.

Aizen turned not to the speaker but inclined his head downwards, smiling, as if chuckling inwardly at a joke. "Don't you think so?"

"You can drop the act Aiz. And I can't be-_lieve_ you acted gay just for this! Really!! Was that even necessary?! God, Aizen!" A laugh.

"Your turn."

* * *

A heated exchange of glares later, coupled with a fantastic mix of vulgarities from Histsugaya and a struggle between he and Karin for the hand phone, Toushiro stood in front of the last ward panting with the effort of keeping the ward door closed against Karin on the other side and scanning through his inbox of messages. It was mortifying, what Aizen had sent.

He deleted them all and sprinted off with his phone, Karin streaming behind him, her dark eyes drawn in ire. "She could find her own way of communicating without a hand phone," thought Hitsugaya, "and he didn't care that the last ward wouldn't get their breakfast!!!"

* * *

Hello! I know. Nothing of great importance really, REALLY happened in this story. Except for Aizen. Yeah. He was important. About him, the description for Aizen wasn't written by me, as you might have realized by the difference of writing standards. It was written by my sis. You should check her out. If I'm not wrong, her user is imurmotherinlaw or something. Actually I only watch bits and pieces of bleach and I don't really plan to really watch it so, naturally, I was blank on how to bring out Aizen. Not that that was a problem for my sis, who really does watch bleach.

AnyWAY.. read and review please!


	5. Chapter 5

Toushiro raised his eyebrows at the metal fixture he was about to walk by, as he headed out of the hospital.

It was a grey object. It looked like a flat rectangular piece of metal was bent into an L-shape so it could stand. Large red stickers across the breadth of the metal thing alerted him to the fact that this was a stand for the hospital's daily, _Hello_. Apparently, there should have been a whole stack of _Hello_ newspapers lying on the metal stand but they were all taken now. On the spot where the newspapers should be lying was another red sticker on the L-shaped stand saying, "Please return the papers here after reading."

He didn't think anyone intended to return the papers. He was never aware of this initiative before, for _any_ newspaper. Perhaps he should get out more.

Then, Toushiro sighted a couple nearing the stand, walking anti-parallel to him. Linked arm-in-arm with a man, the middle-aged woman clad in fashionable office wear was striding towards it, her other arm outstretched and pointing towards the conspicuous object. The man dropped a newspaper on the stand and they both strode away. They had just wanted drop the _Hello_ paper off before continuing with their original intention of going to the hospital.

Toushiro stood corrected. The initiative did work.

He stopped upon reaching the stand, head raised towards the sky. Sleep was being stubborn again, defiantly holed up in whatever abode it had chosen, refusing to emerge and give Toushiro his sleep last night. Guilt was better than caffeine in keeping Toushiro awake. He still had his hand phone on his person so obviously it was not in Karin's possession which left him worried and doubting his decision to take the phone. If Aizen were to send some more.. _uncomfortable_ messages, he was sufficiently determined that Karin would not be the one reading them first, alone no less, to make her own assumptions on what was going on between him and Aizen. No, she could not have the phone anymore. Hands shoved in the pockets of his grey sweater, he cast a look at the Hello newspaper lying forlornly on the stand, just like the way he felt.

He picked up the paper and collapsed on an empty bench near the entrance of Karakura University Hospital. Whipping out a green whiteboard marker he had used yesterday for discussion during the AEM, he openned the paper to a random page and started.

_I've had it. It's been nothing but work and no sleep for weeks; for too long. I had wished for exams to be over so that I could be free of stresses. Never did I think I would impose them upon myself after the exams. But it's worse this time, the stress. I can't sleep because I did someone ill. I can't sleep because Aizen likes me in a weird sick way I don't even want to write about. I can't sleep because I'm worried about school and how I won't be able to sleep even more if I can't even manage all this crap in everyday life- without school to explode things in my face. I try to do a good thing, helping the hospital and all that for Karin's sake, but it seems more and more to me as if she would be perfectly fine, if not happier, without me involving myself. I hate this, I despise it, and now I'm going to get up and put myself through it all over again because I don't think I'll feel better if I drop this. This everything! The AEM, the hospital shifts. _

_Ah.. This is pathetic. Stupid and nonsensical that only a fool with idiocy ingrained in his head would do all this. I know this is the point where I start to self-reflect and everything but- ARGH! I feel so ANGRY!!! _

_Everything I try to acheive ends up in a pile of ashes. I don't even know what it is I was trying to achieve anymore. The ashes are already blown into the wind._

_God I'm a cheese._

Toushiro started when he saw his watch. He would be late for the AEM meeting! He shoved his hand through his hair as he jumped up, throwing the paper aside. That did him no good. Queer! Writing down things always helped for him. Always. He clenched his jaw as he took long strides towards the rendezvous for the AEM. Even his personal practices, his belief that writing problems down would help him deal with them, didn't go his way, didn't work for him.

* * *

As soon as Hitsugaya boarded a bus, we see a fair-haired girl standing on the pavement. We don't know how she got there. How could she have reached the spot she was now in so suddenly, when, there was no one around just a heartbeat ago. Not a soul in the entire area, except for those moving, unobserved by us and not concerning us, in the interior of the surrounding buildings. We are certain that she has arrived by unnatural means.

Without her line of vision falling onto it once, the girl picks up the paper, as if she knew what she had come for and did not need to ascertain what it was she is picking up.

She walks into the hospital, _Hello_ paper in hand. With her loose sweater and unstriking eyes the colour of muddy water, she looks like any other visitor in the hospital. Only her manner of movement sets her apart. She walks with a light step, which carries the caution of a warrior, her head tilting this way and that occasionally, suggesting that she is heavily contemplating a matter. By look of her expression, it was a serious one, for her face would not possibly hold such a blue expression if she thinking something even vaguely pleasing.

We have been so absorbed in this character that we are surprised to see that she is sliding back the door to Karin's ward.

An involuntary smile jumps to her lips as she catches sight of Karin, as if remembering something amusing. As she walks towards her friend and throws the paper at Karin's feet on the bed, Karin looks up at her friend from her breakfast. Karin greatly appreciates the effort her friend puts in for her everyday. She wonders if her friend really thinks her worth the effort.

"What happened to the Hitsu Hotline?" the blonde asks with a teasing tone she tries hard to conceal. She refers to Toushiro's hand phone.

Karin detected the prod at her ego and frowned. She swipes the rumpled hospital daily off her bed and scribbles something on it with a blunt pencil.

"Shut.. up and give.. me your phone, Raimei," the mysterious girl said slowly, as she read her friend's irkingly messy handwriting on the newspaper.

* * *

Karin could feel her brain going in a million different directions. She was unaware of nothing else. Her breathing had slowed and she was unnaturally still, eyes wide, not that she was mindful of it. Raimei had long left. It was late at night and Karin couldn't sleep. She had the newspaper spread in front of her on the page where Hitsugaya had scrawled all over it. The green ink had seeped through the pages and it was splotched where the inky words on one page made contact with the opposite page. She could hardly comprehend what she was reading, and it was amazing, really, how such a mundane thing like a newspaper could contain so much unexpected raw _feeling_ from Hitsugaya. It was obvious it was him.

Everyday, Raimei brought the daily. Karin didn't know what moved Raimei to do so, but she guessed it was the everyday practice of getting the paper for her brother that had made Raimei think it natural to get her friend the paper too.

Every day meant another daily, lashed with the thoughts and musings of the hated person. It was interesting, a good deal interesting, seeing the unabashed purity of a person's personality in a tangible medium. On some days, Toushiro used a blue marker, others it was a ballpoint pen, it's point leaving deep imprints of his writing in the paper. Sometimes he didn't write, but just read the paper, the way a paper was meant to be used, but there would be some words underlined in the articles, some pictures circled. There would be short sentences in the margins, reflecting what he was thinking at that time while he was reading. Like he was conversing to a friend sitting next to him as he read, except instead of talking to that friend straight, he wrote down his words.

Every day, Karin found it easier and easier to bear the fact that Hitsugaya Toushiro existed in her life.

* * *

It was January again. The time school school started it's torment for another year. Again. Toushiro exhaled slowly as he walked down the corridor to lunch at the canteen. Suddenly, Karin stepped out from one of the labs lining the corridor. Hitsugaya tensed but walked on.

She's in the same school?! What would she do when she sees me? Does she still think I'm gay? DANG. Would she proclaim it for everyone in the vicinity to hear? He wouldn't put it past her. He knew it was too late to turn and pretend he had accidentally been walking in the wrong direction. Karin would turn around any second and see him turning and know it was because of her.

...

Oh well..

He turned around-

And was met with Karin's deadpan. WHA-? How did she get behind him? She had her hands shoved into the pockets of her grey skirt as he gapped. She pulled her right hand begrudgingly out of one pocket and held it out. Toushiro tried not to look shocked.

He failed.

"Ha?" Toushiro stared at it. It looked like she was offering her a handshake. A trap! Hitsugaya's bottle-green eyes flashed and narrowed. He pointed his index finger dramatically at the spot in between her eyes and yelled, "Oi **Kurosaki**! Don't try to-"

As he yelled, Karin's expression altered in the subtlest way. It looked as if she was sharing a knowing look with him. There was a spark in her eyes and the sides of her mouth were upturned in the minutest smile. Then it changed as her face assumed an annoyed outlook. Now that was familiar. "I don't know what you mean. But-," she took his outstretched fist. "Kurosaki Karin," she said, her voice carrying an unmistakably bored tone as she forced the tightly coiled fingers of his hand straight. "Nice to meet you." She had his hand in a firm handshake while Hitsugaya stood, amazed at the turn of events. She was looking straight at him now, an eyebrow quirked slightly. She wasn't smiling, just looking, but her stare was different. It wasn't critical, it wasn't condescending, the stare wasn't with the resigned look she sometimes wore when they confronted each other in the past. No, not really.

It was the stare of someone waiting for the reaction of a new acquaintance.

"Hitsugaya Toushiro," he breathed, mystified.

* * *

"My, my, my," chirped Aizen as he overlooked the scene of Karin and Toushiro. Raimei was laughing happily next to him. "I can't be-LIEVE it!" she said, in between her gasps for air. "It worked OUT!! Like a dream! You know, it would have worked out much later if our plan had followed through from the start. Isn't that weird?"

"No," he said, as if meaning to rub something in her face. "I knew that getting it all wrong was part of the plan. You just didn't listen."

"What?" she snapped, beaming.

"We are Fate's intervention."

"Meant to bring together partners who will not be partners under normal circumstances."

"And Fate does not work in conventional ways. Which is why..?"

"We use magic to get connections, influence our subjects to do things and form instant friendships?"

Aizen looked blankly at Raimei. "And..?"

"Because we are not conventional, the direction of our plans do not take the straight path we intend it to as is normally expected with a plan. It makes it feel as though there is a greater power at work don't you think? If we are not wholly responsible for love, who is eh?"

Aizen shrugged. "Who indeed." A pause. "It is time to go."

Then, light spontaneously appeared, surrounding Fate's Intervention like a shell. They stood ramrod straight, unfazed by the light drawing a tight, swirling circle around them. Although more light is supposed to give more clarity, more definition, to a point of vision, the more the light appeared to encapsulate them, the less we could see of them. Soon, there was only a gigantic sphere of light to mark Raimei and Aizen's position. Freshly shorn grass from the surrounding area was tossed by the breeze. Had the flying pinpricks of light taken tangible form, cutting the grass in the process?

Then, as if somebody had switched off the light, the sphere vanished.

There were no imprints in the soft ground where Fate's Intervention had stood.

* * *

MUMTAAZ!!!!! it's finished. WOW. I don't know how people kan persist writing 16-ish chapters of a story. And this is only five. Do you like this kind of story or should I try a new kind of approach for my other stories. By "this kind of story" I mean 2 people and 2 interveners to make love.

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oo that sounded sick.

Thanks for supporting me all this while!! Yuu rocks!!!!

over-and-out,

afiqah


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